1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output apparatus and, more particularly, to an output apparatus in which a plurality of interface sections to input data which is given from an upper apparatus are installed and to its output method.
2. Related Background Art
Among conventional output apparatuses, for example, among printing apparatuses such as printer and the like, there is an apparatus in which a plurality of interface sections to input data are installed and each interface section can be connected to a host computer, a network, and the like through each predetermined cord. In case of such a printing apparatus, it can be used by a method such that, for example, a certain interface is connected to a personal computer and the other interfaces are connected to a workstation through a network, or the like. Therefore, each time a printing process is executed from the personal computer or workstation, a complicated operation such that the cords are physically connected again is unnecessary.
On the other hand, there is a case where, for instance, after the operator sent data to the printing apparatus, he desires to stop the printing process for the supplied data in the halfway before the process of the printing apparatus is finished. Or, in the case where, for instance, the printing apparatus cannot perform a normal print and the process is interrupted because illegal data was inputted, there is a case where it is necessary to delete the illegal data which has already been stored in the printing apparatus. As a countermeasure for such cases, many printing apparatuses have a function for deleting all of data stored in the printing apparatus and forcedly stopping the process by instructing the resetting from an operation panel or the like of a main body by the operator. Such a function to forcedly stop the process is, for example, called a resetting function.
In the case where the printing apparatuses are connected to a plurality of host computers through a plurality of interface sections as mentioned above or the like, however, when the above resetting function is executed, the data inputted from all of the host computers is forcedly deleted. That is, in the case where, when a certain operator has sent illegal data from a certain host computer through a certain interface section and has executed the resetting process because he must stop the printing process in the halfway, there is a problem such that the data inputted from another host computer through another interface by another operator is also deleted at the same time, so that another operator is annoyed by a certain operator or the like.